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· 57 · ReadingQueenoftheWoods Today Margaret Noori ND’BAGOSENDAAM SHKITOOYAAMBA WIINDAMAAG, “SIMON POKAGON, n’bishigendaan gdo’mazinaigan miinwaa da gikendaasoyin geyabi gete-dibaajimowinan noondaamaanan biinji-chi-wiigwaamaning enjiAnishinaabemoyaang noongwa.” Translating these words literally, I wish I could tell him: “Simon Pokagon, I like your book and you should know I still hear them, the old stories, in the birch lodges where we speak Anishinaabemowin today.” I am not sure he could have imagined my comment when he wrote his book. Gonemaa giishpin n’gii noondawig, gii’enh zhoobiingwed. Queen of the Woods is the story of Simon, the son of Leopold and Elizabeth, the husband first of Lonidaw then Angeline, the father of seven children, and an American Indian author who became famous in the late 1890s.As a bilingual contribution to American literature and intellectual life, the text must be viewed from all angles—new and old, literary and linguistic. Pokagon said of his story,“It cannot be read by white people in my own language.”1 How then, do we approach a novel that he offers in a language he admits is not quite up to the task? According to Pokagon, the sound, structure, and meaning of Anishinaabemowin is so fundamentally different from English that translation is difficult. His work is an example · 58 · Margaret Noori of how linguistic differences can reflect differences in perspective. These are the differences Simon Pokagon spent his life negotiating,and his desire to speak simultaneously to two audiences is evident in his work. Simon was a symbol of the past giving way to the present.He went out of his way to represent Indianness as it was, and as it was becoming. This is why he authored this text; why his lawyer, editor, publicist, and friend, Cyrus H. Engle, chose to publish it; and why we still find value in reading it today. Some readers have suggested that the novel,published after Pokagon’s death, was actually ghostwritten by the publisher’s wife, Mrs. Cyrus Engle. LaVonne Ruoff is correct to note that “its Victorian diction differs considerably from the broken English Pokagon used in his letters.”2 It is entirely possible that this is indeed his tale,carefully edited by another.But the mark of Pokagon is quite evident. The book turns away from English 1176 times, which indicates a level of fluency that would be hard to gain without a lifetime of use.The sound of the language is certainly present in the words he chose to include. Yet these words are sometimes misspelled and often spelled inconsistently. For example, three instances of the word for “bear” indicate a shifting ability to hear subtle initial consonants on the part of the scribe.3 This is not uncommon in texts transcribed by non-Native speakers and is evident with several other words.Additionally, 123 words or phrases were translated incorrectly, with the most common correction being 17 instances of the incorrect pronoun. A fluent adult speaker would not likely make a mistake between first and second person, and in the English text the pronoun is always correct. However, this is a very common mistake made by English-speaking students of Algonquian languages because, unlike English where the pronoun is a separate word, fluent use of Pokagon’s native language requires the ability to correctly add a prefix, which is sometimes altered by syncope and initial vowels. Based on these and numerous other examples, it is safest to say that the contents align with tales told and published by Pokagon during his lifetime and should be considered his own, but it is not likely that he is responsible for the final written version of the text.This debate in no way renders the text any less interesting. Although we don’t know exactly whose hand held the pen, the narrative bears the imprint of Pokagon and contains his thoughts on language, literature, and politics. As a way of organizing an investigation of Queen of the Woods, consider the word waabam, which means “to see.”When the protagonist Reading Queen of the Woods Today· 59 · says“n’waabmaa kwesens”(I see the girl),his action marks the point from which their relationship, and the novel, unfolds. However, fluent speakers know that every verb has four versions, and storytellers, by choosing one, share knowledge of those not chosen with their audience. This offers, for this novel, a model of criticism that is indigenous to the first language of the author. Taking one word as an example...

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